|| *Comments on the 1989 Pontiac Excitement 400:* View the most recent comment <#26> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Darrell posted: 11.18.2005 - 5:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) Richard Petty failed to qualify for this race, and it sparked the provisional system to keep established teams in the field. If it wasn't for Petty, we'd probably have races where Junior and Biffle weren't in the field. (sigh) King Richard, why did you have to be slow that day? 2. Mr. Etc posted: 08.23.2006 - 7:51 am Rate this comment: (1) (2) Nah, cuz they would implement it for Junior, knowing Brian France. 3. Nuck Chorris posted: 11.04.2007 - 1:25 am Rate this comment: (4) (0) The provisional system was around longer than Brian France. 4. Matt posted: 12.22.2007 - 2:43 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Noteable DNQs for this race were Ken Bouchard (#10), Kyle Petty (#42), Jimmy Means (#52), Hut Stricklin (#57), and J.D. McDuffie (#70). 5. Matthew Lewis posted: 11.17.2008 - 2:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some sponsor notes: The #51 had a small Lane Automotive decal at the bottom of the hood. They said it was owned by the local undertaker in Coopersville, MI. The #29 still had the blue Hardee's "Deluxe" scheme. The #42 had the Red, Blue & White Smartlease by GMAC paintscheme. The #90 had Hiner Ford on the hood The #17 was still running the Tide "With Bleach" scheme like at Daytona. The #31 had "Clark Motor Sports" on the 1/4 instead of "Slender You" The #23 had no sponsor. B&B Coaches was the name of the company that Don Bierschwale owned. Same with the #34. AAG was Allen's Associate Glass that KenAllen owned. 6. 18fan posted: 02.19.2010 - 12:03 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) This race is what brought about the champion's provisional, so it wouldn't affect Junior. It saved Darrell Waltrip in the late 90s, as Tony Stewart pointed out on the pre race show of the spring 2004 Richmond race that Darrell was in the booth for and he had criticized Tony throughout the season for dumb driving. 7. Steve.M posted: 06.23.2010 - 12:41 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) That rule would have come around eventually. Its not like if Petty had qualified as normal for this race the rule would never have been made lol 8. Ron posted: 11.11.2010 - 11:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Interesting, I thought only the Daytona 500 had that consolation race for DNQ-drivers. But apparently not. Quote from Washington Post (March 26, 1989): "In a 30-mile consolation race for nonqualifiers, Bill Meacham took the $1,500 first prize, finishing ahead of J.D. McDuffie in a five-car field." 9. rob posted: 03.06.2011 - 1:18 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) richard and some of the other "nane" drivers opted not to run the consolation eace. ironically, petty had perhaps his strongest post 200th win effort in this same event a year earlier. 10. DaleSrFanForever posted: 04.20.2011 - 6:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wasn't this ran on Easter sunday? 11. ericthenau posted: 05.01.2011 - 6:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes, this race was run on Easter Sunday. 12. RaceFanX posted: 12.23.2011 - 4:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Other DNQ numbers: Bill Meacham- #04 Bill Ingram- #19 Tony Spanos- #48 Richard Petty's car for this and all three of his other DNQs in 1989 was his normal Petty Enterprises #43 STP Pontiac. 13. Chris posted: 10.19.2012 - 8:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (3) "That rule would have come around eventually." Yep. NASCAR would have implemented it for any of the Hendrick cars because NASCAR does everything to benefit Hendrick. 14. spencer posted: 05.04.2014 - 8:15 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This race was snowed out in February. 15. Ryan Johnson posted: 02.01.2017 - 7:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Reasons for cautions Caution 1: #31 engine spin turn 1 Caution 2: #68 accident turn 2 Caution 3: debris Caution 4: #88 engine Caution 5: #2 spin turn 2 Caution 6: #7 spin turn 4 Caution 7: #11 accident turn 1 Caution 8: #21 spin turn 4 Caution 9: #55 accident turn 2 Caution 10: unknown Caution 11: oil on track turn 4, #17 hit wall Caution 12: #84 engine 16. 48johnsonfan posted: 01.18.2018 - 2:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 10th caution was for debris. 17. Guest posted: 04.19.2018 - 11:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The King actually didn't start the 1989 season off too badly, he was 17th in points coming into this race. The problem was NASCAR used the 1988 points until after the 4th race of the season. He was 22nd in points in 1988 and Dave Marcis used the last provisional starting spot with his 19th place in the 1988 points. This sent the King's season into a tail spin as he dropped from 17th down to 29th after this DNQ and then failed to qualify for another three races during the year, including two of the next three. 18. Jimnsimforever posted: 12.16.2018 - 10:44 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Petty's DNQ in this one race didn't bring that rule in. It was all 4 of the ones he had this season together, plus a large number of the Nascar fan base reaction to him not being in those races. Had Richard either bought a ride and painted it with his sponsor, or retired after this season, I don't think the rule gets changed. 19. zuel660 posted: 12.17.2018 - 8:35 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) In a way, I can understand their reasoning behind the past champion provisional, but at the same time, if I'm at a sprint car or late model race, & if a top driver doesn't qualify for the feature that night, it's their tough luck. Not seeing them race would be a bummer, but on the other hand, they just weren't fast enough on that occasion to be in the show. It was hard watching Petty struggle like he did over the last few years, but I would prefer to have seen him make the race competitively versus sympathetically. 20. Matthew Lewis posted: 12.19.2018 - 5:15 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) There was a 40 lap "consolation race" held Saturday afternoon for the cars who did not qualify. This was the final time such a race was held at Richmond International Raceway. Of the 10 cars who DNQ'ed, only 5 chose to take part in the race. Possibly because this was a Pontiac sponsored race, as curiously all 5 cars who chose not to compete were Pontiacs. 1989 PONTIAC 400 CONSOLATION RACE RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY SATURDAY-MARCH 25, 1989 40 LAPS, 30.0 MILES 1-04-Bill Meacham Charles Meacham & Associates-Oldsmobile (Charles Meacham) 2-70-J.D. McDuffie Rumple Furniture-Pontiac (J.D. McDuffie) 3-19-Bill Ingram Gray Racing-Oldsmobile (Henley Gray) 4-49-Tony Spanos Hylton Racing-Buick (James Hylton) 5-65-Steve Seligman Seligman Racing-Ford (Steve Seligman) DID NOT PARTICIPATE: 10-Ken Bouchard Whitcomb Racing-Pontiac (Bob Whitcomb) 42-Kyle Petty PEAK Antifreeze-Pontiac (Felix Sabates) 43-Richard Petty STP Oil Treatment-Pontiac (Richard Petty) 52-Jimmy Means Alka Seltzer-Pontiac (Jimmy Means) 57-Hut Strickland Heinz Ketchup-Pontiac (Rod Osterland) 21. Anthony posted: 01.14.2019 - 4:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) 30 years after Richard Petty missed a race, we have a situation where no-one misses a race regardless of speed 22. GGDC posted: 04.01.2019 - 10:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) TO THE BACK #21 Niel Bonnett Tire Change #55 Phil Parsons Backup Car (Parsons missed the start) 23. TheDewCrew posted: 07.31.2019 - 10:34 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) This would be the first time in Michael Waltrip's career, that he would be top 10 in points after a race 24. SweetRich posted: 02.16.2020 - 8:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Commentators For The Race Were Ken Squier And Johnny Hayes. The Pit Road Reporters Were Chris Economaki And Mike Joy. Anchoring The STP Pit Communication Center Was Dave Despain. 25. BOBO83329521 posted: 04.26.2020 - 7:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Richard Petty crashed in practice and didn't have enough time to prepare the car and fix all the damage from said crash, thus the DNQ 26. BOBO83329521 posted: 04.26.2020 - 7:09 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Notes about this one: Goodyear v. Hoosier. Hoosiers appeared to be better on the short runs but the Goodyear tires blew by the Hoosiers on longer runs like they were completely stopped! Alan Kulwicki got contact from Sterling Marlin a lap after the restart from Ernie Irvan's spin, that caused him to blow his tire and spin out, he managed to stay on the lead lap, but would have to come back to pit road under green for a loose lug nut, that caused him to go a lap down. He made up that lap later in the race and would lead laps at the end. Phil Parsons had issues getting going on restarts all race long and finally the car lost laps with a blown tire out of the lead on lap 211. Rusty Wallace and Dale Sr. both had issues with their tires, Sr.'s crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine said that they couldn't run the tires hard without tearing them up. Rusty made several pit stops all around 5-10 laps after a restart but never lost the lead lap throughout the race. I don't think modern NASCAR officials would have been this patient with the 48 of Mickey Gibbs. I don't think he would have ever came back on track after blowing a motor at least 4 times in the same race! Great battle for the final 30-40 laps between Rusty and Kulwicki. Also some great racing with around 100 to go when Kulwicki gained the lead for the first time then got caught by the field thanks to the fierce battle that Geoffrey Bodine was putting up. Kulwicki did get into contact with Harry Gant while Kulwicki was warming up his tires for the restart on lap 270. The contact was enough to send Gant to pit road where he lost another lap, but it didn't seem to phase Kulwicki or the car on the inside line there because they were 3 wide under caution (I couldn't tell who it was my best guess is #9 Bill Elliott maybe?) Also, for a moderator correction, the margin of victory was NOT 2.8 seconds. I could not find the actual MOV online anywhere. Looked around in the 0.4-0.5 range based on some crude calculations I did ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: